President Obama: ‘I have lived out the promise of LBJ’s efforts’

President Barack Obama paid tribute Thursday to President Lyndon B. Johnson and his role in expanding civil rights, vowing to honor that legacy by using his power to fight for what he believes in.

“The story of America is a story of progress. However slow, however incomplete, however harshly challenged,” Obama said at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, where leaders gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “President Johnson knew that ours is a story of optimism, a story of achievement and constant striving that is unique upon this Earth.”

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Obama pays tribute to LBJ

The president’s focus during his 30-minute speech was on Johnson’s accomplishments and power, his determination to tackle difficult issues, even when his political advisers urged him to tread lightly. “What the hell’s the presidency for if not to fight for causes you believe in?” Obama asked, drawing inspiration from a line used by Johnson.

The 36th president “knew that poverty and injustice are as inseparable as opportunity and justice are joined,” said Obama, and chose to use the power of the presidency to counter those forces, pushing through the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and a range of social welfare programs including Medicare.

“Passing laws was what LBJ knew how to do. No one knew politics and no one loved legislating more than President Johnson,” Obama said, not acknowledging his own challenges in getting Congress to take action on his legislative priorities.

Johnson “understood that equality required more than the absence of oppression. It required the presence of economic opportunity,” Obama added. “A decent job, decent wages, health care — those, too, were civil rights worth fighting for.” And he knew that, as a southern Democrat who’d grown up in poverty, he was “the only guy who could do it. … That’s what his presidency was for. That’s where he meets his moment.”

The president said that Johnson’s work was difficult, and “that progress in this country can be hard and it can be slow, frustrating … the office humbles you,” he said. “You’re reminded in this great democracy you are but a relay swimmer in the currents of history, bound by decisions made by those who came before, relying on the efforts of those who will follow to fully vindicate your vision.”

But as the person carrying that baton, Obama — and any president — has the “unique opportunity to bend those currents by shaping our laws and by shaping our debates, by working within the confines of the world as it is but also by reimagining the world as it should be.”

Obama also acknowledged the debt that he, as the first African-American president, owes to Johnson and others involved in the civil rights movement. “I have lived out the promise of LBJ’s efforts,” he said, as have first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha, and so many others. “That’s why I’m standing here today … because of those efforts, because of that legacy.”

The president was introduced by one of the few giants of the civil rights movement, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who also credited it for making possible Obama’s presidency. “When people say nothing has changed, I say come and walk in my shoes, and I will show you change,” Lewis said. Still, “we understand there is much more work to do to redeem the soul of America.”

Before the president’s speech, he and the first lady toured the library’s exhibit on the civil rights movement with Lewis and the library’s director. Among the artifacts on display: a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution signed by Abraham Lincoln, and copies of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. The president also met with members of the Johnson family.

The summit drew three of the four living ex-presidents. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter spoke on Wednesday, and George W. Bush will deliver a speech later Thursday. The ailing George H.W. Bush greeted Obama on the tarmac when he landed in Houston on Wednesday afternoon ahead of two Democratic fundraisers.